The present invention relates to an instrument panel or dashboard structure of a vehicle, which is arranged in a front portion of a passenger room.
As a conventional dashboard of a vehicle, a structure disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-190551 is known. As shown in FIG. 1, various operation switches such as a car radio switch b, a fog lamp switch c, and the like are normally arranged on a conventional instrument panel a. The conventional instrument panel a is deformed so that the wall surface of the instrument panel a is curved toward a rear portion of a vehicle body as it is separated from a mounting position of a steering wheel d when the vehicle body is viewed from the top. When the instrument panel a is formed in this manner, the wall surface of the instrument panel a can be arcuated to have a driver position at the center.
When the instrument panel is arcuated to have the driver position at the center, a driver need only move a hand released from the steering wheel d along the arcuated wall surface of the instrument panel a, and can evenly easily operate the various operations switches b, c, and the like arranged on the wall surface of the instrument panel.
However, the times required for switch operations become substantially constant regardless of the importance of the operation switches b and c. For this reason, the operability is not satisfactory for operation switches which have a higher importance and which are required to be quickly operated as compared to other switches.
In order to shorten the operation times of the operation switches b and c, the instrument panel a may be arranged close to a driver. In this case, however, the driver feels oppression by the close instrument panel a, resulting in poor amenity.
A meter assembly e is a set of meters such as a speedometer, a fuel gauge, and the like, attached to a portion in front of a driver's seat, and a meter hood f is arranged around the meter assembly e, as described in, e.g., Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 64-30734.
In general, the meter assembly e is attached to a recess portion in the instrument panel a for the purpose of, e.g., preventing degradation of visibility of the meters due to entrance/reflection of direct rays of the sun, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The meter hood f is constituted by a flat portion g fixed along the surface of the instrument panel a, and upper, lower, right, and left longitudinal wall portions h extending from the flat portion g toward the front portion of the vehicle body, i.e., to the front end portion of the meter assembly e. The instrument panel attachments such as the above-mentioned operation switches b and c, indication lamps i and j, and the like are mounted on the flat portion g.
Conventionally, the meter hood f is obtained by integrally molding the flat portion g and the longitudinal wall portions h using, e.g., synthetic resin members. The longitudinal wall portions h are formed to be tapered wider toward a passenger M so as to allow easy mold releasing in a molding process.
When the meter hood f is formed into the tapered shape, the proximal end portions of the longitudinal wall portions h on the side of the passenger M extend outwardly from the meter assembly e. As a result, the mounting space of the attachments on the instrument panel a is limited, thus decreasing the degree of freedom in a layout.
In particular, a vehicle which has a lounge-like interior design, i.e., in which the instrument panel a and door trims are smoothly connected by a continuous curved surface, has been developed. In such a vehicle, since the right and left end portions of the instrument panel a are formed into a curved surface shape, an effective space for mounting the instrument panel attachments such as the operation switches, indication lamps, and the like, a ventilation outlet, and the like is further narrowed.